Right Street, Wrong House
There are moments in life where you can be close to where God calls you and still miss out on what he has for you.
Years ago, someone on our team got an invitation to a birthday party. When the day arrived, he typed in the address to GPS and arrived at the location. When he got to the house, he walked in and greeted a couple of people. Then he served himself some appetizers and got himself a drink. When he stepped to the backyard where the party was happening, he didn’t see the family that invited him. In fact, he didn’t recognize anyone.
Puzzled, he walked back out to the car to check the invitation, and though he was on the right street, he suddenly realized that he was at the wrong house.
Embarrassed, he walked three doors down and made it to party.
When asked about how he arrived at the wrong house, he said, “I saw the balloons on the mailbox and thought I was at the right place.”
We live in a culture that says, "Follow your own truth; follow your own understanding." The problem is: Our hearts are decietful above all else. (Jeremiah 17:9-10)
Don't trust your feelings or your own understanding: trust God's truth.
God knows the way because He's the way, the truth and the life (John 14:6).
When we apply the wisdom of God's word found in Proverbs 3:5-6, God will pave the way in front of us.
Don't trust the Lord's GPS "to a point," and then, in arrogance, pride, or presumption just give up on His navigation, leaning on your own sense of direction.
Here's my challenge: Follow God's directions all the way, because God's divine direction will get you to God's destiny.
Trust he knows how to lead you.
Sometimes Life Is Just This Random
Sometimes life is just so random. Take for example the “accidental” good fortune ($10 million worth!) of LaQuedra Edwards of SoCal, whose random collision with a stranger resulted in the haul of a lifetime.
As UPI reports:
Edwards had just put $40 into a lottery ticket vending machine at a supermarket in Los Angeles when "some rude person" bumped into her, causing her to accidentally push the wrong number on the machine.
"He just bumped into me, didn't say a thing and just walked out the door," Edwards said.
Edwards was quire resentful at first, because she had just put nearly all her cash into the machine, and was now committed to a lotto ticket that was not of her choosing.
She usually purchases cheaper tickets, but the accidental button push meant she'd bought a $30 200X Scratchers ticket.
Her annoyance and frustration was quickly turned to exuberant disbelief as she began scratching the ticket, only to find that she just won the $10 million jackpot!
Edwards said. "I pulled over, looked at it again and again, scanned it with my (California Lottery mobile) app, and I just kept thinking this can't be right."
The fact that such a thing could happen to one means that it could just as easily happen to anyone. God's love is indiscriminate and the random nature of life is meant to drive that point home.
Today it may rain on my field but tomorrow it may rain on yours. Either way, the message is the same. God loves us all indiscriminately.
"He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous" (Mattew 5:45b, NIV).
Don't Let Your Friends Hold You Back
Most of us have some experience with choosing a side in a conflict or a debate. And whether we realize it or not, our positions on any number of things has a way of narrowing our associations. If you're a Christian, you have Christian friends. If you are an artist, your closest friends are creative in some way. All of us have a particular political leaning, and it's likely that most of our friends agree with us.
But what if someone has an addiction of some sort? More often than not, the people he or she associates with are caught up in an addiction as well.
What you love most will show through the people with whom you surround yourself. If your passion happens to be productive, you will attract like-minded people. But if it's counter-productive, you will surround yourself with people who will hold you back.
Thus, if you are not yet reconciled to God, then you are most likely surrounded by people who will help keep you that way. Your passion, whether it is for God or not, has led you to where you are right now, to the people in your life.
Are the people around you following God? Don't let your friends hold you back!
"Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness?" (2 Corinthians 6:14).